The Indiana Manufacturers Association plans to host the first Indiana Sustainability Summit for Manufacturers, covering subjects like renewable energy and the circular economy.
Case Study: Delivering a better customer experience with EagleView Like most of the economy, clean energy was hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic and economic downturn in 2020. At one point more than 600,000 clean energy workers had filed for unemployment, but the sector rebounded strongly after May to recover about half of those jobs to finish the year down 307,000 clean energy workers. The decline in total clean energy employment was the first recorded since E2 began producing its annual Clean Jobs America reports in 2016.
According to the analysis, energy efficiency jobs saw the biggest drop, declining about 11 percent over the year as workers were prevented from entering homes and offices because of the pandemic lockdowns. Still, energy efficiency accounts for an even greater share of U.S. construction jobs, employing about one in every five construction workers nationwide. Other clean energy sectors also saw significant declines in 2020, including renewable energy (6 percent), g
The panels supply the bulk of his home electricity, and when he’s not using power, he sells the excess energy back to the grid, nearly eliminating an electricity bill that would otherwise cost him about $1,100 annually.
“It makes good economic sense,” said Seyfarth, so he’s pursuing a similar project on a home he owns Glen Arbor, in Consumers Energy territory.
But due to a state policy that limits rooftop solar owners’ ability to sell their excess power, the financial math that motivates Seyfarth might not be available for future customers of Consumers or other Michigan investor-owned utilities.
Under state law, utilities are required only to reimburse private customers for renewable energy given back to the grid until the sum of that energy reaches 1 percent of a utility’s average peak demand. That allotment is further broken down by size, with installations that produce small quantities of energy, such as residential solar arrays, allowed to make up .5 percen